Page 27 - Final Annual Report 2020

Sacred Arts 2020 Annual Report

Kay Dunlap Kay Dunlap, Judy Cranshaw, co-chairs, David Tiedman, Music Director
Bart Morse, Carol Powell-Morse, Steve Solomon, Nan Vaida, Beth Villa,
Chris Winterfeldt

The Sacred Arts Ministry usually presents three types of programs each year: a Powell Fund for the Creative Word
speaker; a public arts related program such as an art show, and a program in coordination with Christian Education
for children. Despite the pandemic, 2020 was no exception. We started planning for the Powell Fund speaker, usually
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presented in March, in the fall of 2019 with a larger than usual project focused on the upcoming 400 anniversary of
the arrival of the Pilgrims in 2020. We knew that Congregationalists were the spiritual ancestors of the Pilgrims, but
we wanted to learn more about the religious reasons they came here and how their views evolved. We also wanted to
learn more about their relationship with, and impact on the local indigenous people. The plan included reading
Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick; inviting the interpreter who plays William Bradford at Plimoth Plantation to be
our Powell Fund speaker and to lead a family workshop following it and visiting Plimoth Plantation in the fall. Due
to the pandemic, the speaker and workshop were postponed to last October when they were presented on Zoom, and
the visit to Plimoth Plantation was postponed to a yet unknown future date.

To learn more about the Pilgrim’s arrival from the Native Americans’ point of view, we planned to show the
documentary Praying Town by Zadi Zokou, which covers three centuries of history of the Puritans, Christian Indians,
and free and enslaved black people in this area. We plan to show the film early in 2021. We read I Heard the Owl
Call My Name by Margaret Craven, and as part of the visit to Plimoth Plantation, we planned a special workshop
presented by one of the Wampanoag people. That program has been postponed until the fall of 2021.
Near the beginning of the Covid Pandemic, when the church went to online services, our committee began to talk
about what we could do to uplift the spirits of our congregation and the community using the outdoor space in front
of our church and the parking lot to present some kind of public art project. When we were reminded that one of our
church members had offered to fund the return of a previous artist in residence, Michael Dowling. We talked to
Michael and he agreed to lead a project.

During our early discussions with Michael, the Black Lives Matter protests began, and we realized that we were
being called to take our exploration of who we were not only as Christians descended from Pilgrim ancestors to what
our role might have been and should be in responding to and interrupting racial injustice in this area today.
Michael suggested that we augment our team with L’Amerchie Frazier, Director of Education and interpretation at
the Museum of African American History in Boston, and Amir Dixon, a film maker that he had worked with in the
past. The project became “Tales from the Stoop” and it eventually connected all the pieces from our project about the
Pilgrims and Native American people to the injustices experienced by Black and other Americans, and what we are
called as Christians to do about it.

It began with making mosaic panels with words about justice which were installed on the front of the church building
and will culminate early this year with the presentation of a short documentary film. “Witness” will bring together
members of our church and Bethel A.M.E to learn more about our shared histories in the struggle for racial justice
and how we can work together to make meaningful changes in the future. The film and a discussion following it will
be this year’s Powell Fund event.

There was a rainbow mosaic project for grades 2-6 over the summer.

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